The Many Dimensions of Paid Search

The beauty of paid search as a component of the digital ad campaign is that it helps put a brand’s message in front of the right audiences at the right times. And achieving that sense of clarity in terms of reaching the right audience is especially valuable for B2B organizations that want to test different messages with their audiences to see how they perform.

However, one of the biggest downsides to paid search, also known as pay-per-click (PPC), is that it can be costly to pay for these higher search results. And, according to an article from Hochman Consultants, the cost of pay-per-click has increased from year to year.

In light of this reality, the best way to maximize PPC performance now is to approach it from several angles. We’ve come up with a series of action items for the pay-per-click campaigns we manage.

Six Approaches to Developing Paid Search Campaigns

1. Identify: The most fundamental step of any PPC campaign is coming up with a wide variety of keywords that audiences are using to find a specific company or product. While there are many possible keywords to include for any particular search, it’s also important to stick to keywords that also live on your website. Search engines like Google will penalize organizations for not having content relevant to their PPC keywords on their sites. Another aspect of keyword identification to keep in mind: Negative keyword mining — identifying keywords that should not be part of the desired search results —  is just as important as positive keyword mining when it comes to gaining impressions for the proper search queries.
2. Coordinate: Paid media tactics need to be developed in tandem or in relationship to search engine optimization efforts. This leads to more effective search engine marketing by ensuring that the keywords from one campaign aren’t inadvertently removed from another. Organizations bidding on a certain set of keywords, for example, want to ensure that those keywords remain part of the content. They also should make sure that any website optimizations they do don’t impact pay per click by not having relevant keywords present.
3. Test: One of the best things about paid search is that it’s a cost-effective tool for testing the effectiveness and performance of various messages, styles and placements with target prospects. Organizations can use PPC to test how well certain messages perform in terms of conversions, and also how those messages affect landing page performance.
4. Recommend: Paid search campaigns can also help indicate rapidly changing optimization strategies. For example, we use paid search results to suggest keywords that should be added to an organization’s website to make the most of trending traffic opportunities.
5. Revise: An important part of every paid search campaign is refining and revising. This is why we use paid search performance to suggest and recommend updates for website and landing page content.
6. Manage: Finally, every paid search campaign has to be monitored and managed to ensure ongoing performance. We make management easier by setting up paid media campaigns, collecting and synthesizing performance insights, and using both to manage ongoing campaign executions. A big part of management also comes down to checking performance routinely, understanding costs and returns, and adjusting PPC bids when warranted.

All of these approaches to PPC serve a common purpose: they help ensure the organization is setting up its paid media campaigns to maximize their potential while keeping costs under control and their efforts focused. It’s also an excellent source of audience insights for organizations that implement PPC campaigns wisely.

Another powerful source of marketing potential we’ll cover in the next post: marketing automation and how to use this tool to nurture leads at scale.

Until then, for more details on these tactics, please get in touch. We’re happy to continue the conversation.